Home for Good
by D the Fox
Summary: I had been thinking of doing a story dedicated to the 20th Anniversary of Pokemon for several months now and, finally, here it is. This is a one-shot about Red becoming Champion and realizing his journey is finally over. Have a happy 20th! Enjoy!
**Home for Good**

* * *

- _Click._

 _-_ The distinctive red-on-white ball fell to the ground with a single critical shake.

-Red approached it, tentative. No. It was safe. He lifted the ball, the smooth metal cool and damp on his skin. His PokéDex updated:

 **-Name: Mewtwo**

 **-#150**

 **-Height: 6"7'**

 **-Weight: 269 Lbs**

 **-Info: It's DNA is almost the same as Mew's. However, it's size and disposition are vastly different. It was created by a scientist after years of horrific gene splicing and DNA engineering experiments.**

-Red looked at his capture, unsure. Yes. He had done it. He had captured it. Mewtwo. The last one. #150. The most powerful Pokémon in the world.

-He had done it. Finally. He was the very best. Like no one ever was. He had done what was thought impossible. He had caught them all.

-A small tear landed on the polished surface. Memories flashed in his mind from various points in his journey: his first Gym battle against Brock; his first battle with Giovanni; his first trade (he had traded away a Chansey he had inexplicably caught two of for a friend's Bulbasaur); his first captured Pokémon (an adorable Rattatta he'd nicknamed CHEWY); his first loss (a trainer in the Cerulean City Gym); a chance encounter with Mew (captured!); fighting Giovanni in Viridian City and winning his final Gym badge; trudging through Victory Road; fighting the Elite Four; becoming Champion.

-Receiving his first Pokémon from Professor Oak… The baby Charmander he had raised from the very beginning who now stood beside him. Level 75 now a fully grown Charizard.

-Had he really done so much?

-Had he really come this far?

-Had this all happened? To him?

-No, it can't have. Incredible things didn't happen to normal, everyday people. They happened to people with ambitions and dreams, and he had wanted nothing more than to live happily, possibly a Pokémon at his side.

-After all, wasn't he still only ten-years old? Did he really even have any dreams or ambitions?

-But still, he had done it. He had done things people only dreamed of.

-It dawned on him how unthinkable it really was. The things he had done had all of the quality of a vividly remembered dream.

-Perhaps it _was_ only a dream. That he would wake up in his bed and his mom would tell him that Professor Oak wanted to see him and that he would get his first Pokémon and that he could go on an adventure.

-Perhaps.

-He wiped his eyes with the heel of his hand. Yes, he had done it. But what did that leave him with? What had really come of it?

-Red tugged on the slightly frayed straps of his backpack, battered from the many countless elements it had seen and been beaten with.

-He had intended to use Alakazam to simply teleport from the unknown dungeon some called Cerulean Cave. But no. No, now he was going to walk. He was going to take every step away from this place and he was going to remember them. He had thinking he wanted to do, had no idea where to go next.

-After he had done everything, there was nothing left for him to do. Nothing left.

-So he began to walk.

* * *

-He lost track of how long he had walked, of how far he had gone. He was crossing across the bridges outside of Lavender Town, took one long moment to consider the Pokémon Tower. He had fought Blue there, and Team Rocket, and quelled the ghost of Marrowak.

-He continued on.

-Fuchsia City, where he had spent countless hours playing the Safari Zone.

-The Seafoam Islands, where he had caught Jinx and the Legendary Bird of Ice.

-Cinnabar Island, where he had explored the burned out ruins of the Pokémon Mansion. Learned of the Pokémon Mew, and its offspring Mewtwo. Where he had encountered the mind breaking MissingNo.

-He sat there, water lapping around him, inches away from the shore. He was here at a place where he somehow knew he would return, but greatly feared. Pallet Town, his hometown, the place where he had grown up, then left, and had returned only briefly after becoming Champion. Then he had left again.

-Now he was back. Almost. Just inches from the shore. Enough time to Fly away. Somewhere else, anywhere else. Just leave.

-He could. Move off somewhere else, travel the world. He had money, he had power as an Elite Four Champion. Authority. No one would blame him for wanting to see more, after all he had been through.

-But… what would come of it? Leaving again? Staying home? What would come of him?

-A thought, simple and pure, but a thought, none the less.

-Did he have to go back?

* * *

-He stood for a moment, just outside of Victory Road, standing at the entrance to that cave which had before seemed so formidable.

-An idea.

-Through the labyrinth he had come to appreciate, the place he could now navigate with the skills of a great cartographer, he walked, battling opponents who grew arrogant of their own strength.

-Red was not arrogant. He knew he could lose, just as easily as anyone else, but he didn't. He simply did not lose, not since the beginning of his journey. If he were to crunch the numbers, he would probably have something of a 721:1 win/lose ratio. It was not arrogance or cockiness, or any other undesirable quality. Red was just good.

-Wild Pokémon, Trainers, he fought his way through the cave again. He returned to the Pokémon League. He fought his old adversaries, now his friends, and returned to the Hall of Fame once more.

* * *

-Again, he traversed the long walk through the routes and region, again, returning just to the edge of Pallet Town, and again Flying before stepping on the grass of his home town.

-And again he walked the lengths of Kanto, roads which had once seemed mysterious and unknown to him, but now seemed all to familiar. Too familiar.

-No, this was not the place for him. Red knew that. This place, this region, this world… He had to leave it. Leave it behind, maybe for good, if that's what it required. Whatever it takes, he'd do it.

* * *

-Something extraordinary happened. Beyond extraordinary.

-As he walked again the Victory Road which had seemed to have become his new home, he came to a road. One he had not seen before. Had never encountered in all his travels, a new road, leading to a new complex in the intense cavern.

-He came to a new entrance in the cave. And found a new Route, one outside, the likes of which would be unassuming to anyone else. But to Red, a new route meant a new world, one he had not seen. One he could only stand in awe at the existence of.

-Red had always known that the world was larger than Kanto. The world did not simply end at the Indigo Plateau. But never had he seen what lay beyond.

-Now, he came to a world he could only marvel at.

-He explored this new route, and suddenly from the grass, a Pokémon appeared. But this was more than a Pokémon, because this was one his Pokédex could not identify.

-Average height, a weird blue-green or green-black coloration. Large claws.

-A Pokémon Red had never seen before.

-Red fought this new Pokémon, noting its skills and abilities. Its attacks, the way it moved. He compiled a strategy against the Pokémon the same way he had for every other Pokémon he had fought. He threw a Pokéball.

-One… two… three… _Click._

-His PokéDex updated:

 **-Name: Sneasel**

 **-#215**

 **-Height: 2'11"**

 **-Weight: 61.7 lbs.**

 **-Info: This cunning Pokémon hides in the cover of darkness, waiting to attack its prey. Vicious in nature, it drives Pidgey from their nests and feats on the eggs that are left behind. Its paws conceal sharp claws. If attacked, it suddenly extends the claws and startles its enemy.**

-Red re-read the entry. #215. That meant that there were at least sixty-four new Pokémon in this region. Sixty-four species he had never seen, encountered, or heard of. And, if there were sixty-four species he definitively knew he did not know, how many more were after that? Maybe hundreds.

-No, his journey was not over. In fact, in retrospect, to Red, his journey had simply finally truly began.

-Maybe then, after this new journey ended, he would finally be able to return home. Home for good.


End file.
